Helm Academy — Accessible Vocational Training Platform Co-Staffed by Persons with Disabilities

Helm was founded in Cairo in 2014 by Ramez Maher and Amena El-Saie. In 2021 it launched Helm Academy, an accessible ICT platform for vocational and job-preparedness training, with materials available in Easy Read, Braille and audio.
Half of Helm's own workforce consists of persons with disabilities, working across technology, operations, HR, learning and development, and accessibility — embedding disabled expertise directly into how courses are designed and delivered, rather than treating accessibility as an external add-on.
By mid-2024 the Academy had built a library of roughly 100 course modules and trained about 8,000 individuals across Egypt, 44% of them women, with 40% of graduates securing employment within six months. Helm was named a Zero Project 2025 Awardee.
The documented evidence centres on inclusive staffing and decision-making roles for disabled employees rather than formal co-design workshops with end users, so this is an institutionalised-inclusion case more than a workshop-based participatory-design case.

Read the full analysis: https://www.aucegypt.edu/news/stories/helm-foundation-every-day-international-day-persons-disabilities